On Wednesday, July 28th, 2010, the UN affirmed the right to safe and clean drinking water. Previously, access to safe drinking water merely meant that governments need only guarantee that water is available for purchase and not a fundamental right. Maude Barlow, national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians and the Washington, D.C.-based Food and Water Watch and former senior advisor on water to the president of the UN General Assembly explains: “It means governments have to provide the water even if people cannot pay for it…it’s an important distinction.”

In the wake of the flooding in Pakistan, the cries from mothers who plead for help to save their children’s lives, I humbly realized just how much I take for granted clean, safe drinking water, here in Canada. We could wipe out 80% of human disease if we could provide clean drinking water worldwide. It is astounding that over 1.1 billion people don’t have safe water to drink, 1.6 billion don’t have adequate electricity and, in Pakistan, currently less than 10% of the 20 million people have access to safe drinking water.

Calling all those with a spare dime, $1, $5, $7.50, $30 or $1000…

Since 1995, Proctor and Gamble (P & G) collaborated with the Center of Disease Control (CDC) to develop safe drinking water systems. Dr. Greg Allgood of P & G is on a mission: to save the lives of children and educate the world about the benefits of clean drinking water. The PUR packet is a powder mixture (therefore smaller and easier to ship in mass quantities) that removes pathogenic microorganisms and suspended matter to the order of (at least) 99.9% of intestinal bacteria, viruses and protozoa. One packet turns 10 litres of dirty water into clean and drinkable water. PUR packets have decreased diarrheal disease in developing areas of the world by up to 90% and are considered an effective technology by the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Allgood has posted P&G’s response to the flooding in Pakistan and you can view the PUR packet at work here. If you want to contribute, you can make a donation at P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water project.

By the way, here is the breakdown of what pocket change can buy: 10 cents – 1 PUR packet which can clean 10 litres of water; $1.oo – provides a child with clean water for 50 days; $7.50 – provides a child with clean water for 1 year, and $30.00 provides an entire family with clean water for 1 year.

A Swiss firm, Vestergaard-Frandsen invented the LifeStraw which filters out 99.99% of bacteria and contains an iodine element to kill viruses and parasites from any water source. An estimated 1.5 million children die needlessly from diarrhoea due to unsanitary drinking water. This kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles COMBINED. It is a staggering statistic that 43% of the global population is deprived of household piped water that is safe to consume. The Cochrane Reviews (revered as the best single source of evidence about the effects of healthcare interventions) found that it is not enough to treat water at the point of source, but also at the point of consumption. Sometimes it is during transport that water is badly contaminated – even if the ground water site has been treated.

The LifeStraw costs us only $5, filters particles as tiny as 15 microns and kills disease-causing bacteria and viruses. It safely filters 700 litres of water – about a one year supply of clean drinking water for one person. There is also a family model which provides up to 17,000 litres of water and can keep a family of 6 alive for up to 2 years (it produces one litre of safe water in under 5 minutes).

Segway creator, Dean Kamen came up with a dual purpose invention. A water vapor compress distiller (named Slingshot) and a Stirling cycle-based 1-kW electric generator. Collectively, it purifies dirty water (without filters) and makes 1000 litres of clean water a day while it generates about 200 watts of power. The generator is powered by cow dung – easy to find in many third world countries. The machine currently costs about $100,000 to manufacture. However, with mass production and design improvements, Kamen hopes to make it for $1000 – $2000 per machine. Great key features are: it can supply a village with 1000 litres/day of clean water; can use ANY water source: ocean, puddle, chemical waste site, hexavelent chrome, arsenic, poison, or 50 gallon drum of urine; has no filters to replace, no charcoal, nothing disposable to change (works on distillation); can use half the waste heat (450 watts) to boil water; weighs less than 60 lbs and can produce 200 watts of power. Even for light bulbs, this would be useful in many areas for economic growth. More information can be found here.

Perhaps we should celebrate this milestone – what is finally recognized as a human right – clean and safe drinking water for everyone. Reminds me of the phrase, commonly misattributed to Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat cake” – only it sounds much more enlightened to now say, “Let them drink water!”

UPDATE: There are 85, 312 registered Canadian charities. Here are my top 4 picks and easiest way to ensure that your contribution will be doubled  (by the Canadian government until September 12th) and your donation will be put towards helping those with the greatest need in Pakistan:

Canadian Red Cross - donate $5 by texting REDCROSS to 30333 and a one-time donation of $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill. You can also call 1-800-418-1111 or donate on-line at: www.redcross.ca

Plan Canada – formerly known as Foster Parents Plan, founded in 1937 – renamed in 2006 to simply “Plan”. Please call 1-888-219-8835 to donate or on-line at: PlanCanada.ca/PakistanRelief

www.wordvision.ca - just google and click on the “Give Now” icon

UNICEF.ca/Pakistan-Floods – google and click on the “DONATE NOW” prompt

If you wish, you can simply google Canadian Relief for Pakistan and find these and other registered charitable organizations.  To check if a charity is registered, go to: www.cida.gc.ca

Final note: On August 18th, the Toronto Star published an article by Allan Woods of the Ottawa Bureau. In it, he mentions that Canada has promised $33 million in aid to Pakistan. His article begs the question (which I am also trying to find out), has or will Canada dispatch DARP – our military’s Disaster Assistance Response Team? DARP provides medical assistance and clean water to disaster areas around the world and was deployed to Haiti some 8 months ago. Canada must first receive a formal request from an individual country or the United Nations in order to initiate this response. Please feel free to comment if you have any further information about this or any Canadian relief response worthy of note. Thank you for re-checking my website for updates.

Since we spend a third of our life asleep, it must be important. And yet, most of us get an hour and a half LESS than we require every night. Re-known sleep scientist, Mark Rosekind led a NASA study which found a short nap can boost a worker’s output by 34%. We were meant to have two sleep periods within 24 hours. Since body temperature decreases between 2 – 4 pm, this is the ideal time frame for a 20 – 45 minute nap (short enough to prevent entering those deeper stages of sleep, you know, where you feel too groggy afterwards). I heard somewhere that a 20 minute nap is more revitalizing than three cups of coffee. Some cultures have long maintained the afternoon siesta; surprisingly, even in some parts of Japan (as “driven” as their economy is). In warm-climate farming countries, when mid-day was too hot to work, people took a nap.

So how does sleep help? We still do not understand all of the benefits. The proven ones include: sustaining the immune system, balancing hormones (perhaps more of an issue for women than men), repairing body tissues, and helping the brain process and store information. Adequate sleep appears to eliminates biases that can influence conscious thought, it helps us reach rational decisions and solve complex problems. One study even showed that adequate REM (rapid eye movement) sleep can boost creative powers, insight and problem solving by 40%.

A paper titled “Sleep Affecting Work…or Vice Versa?” by C.C. Holland (April 28, 2008) mentioned interesting findings from University of Michigan’s sociologist Sarah Burgard. Historically, she stated that demanding physical work, resulting in physical fatigue, led to restorative sleep. In our modern era, psychological strain at work (70% of which involved conflict with co-workers or bosses) does the opposite – making it MORE difficult to sleep. The conclusion: work relations affect sleep more than the actual hours logged (including overtime and weekend work). Relations with co-workers and bosses affected quality sleep even more than the fear of job loss and shift changes (including those who rotate through day, afternoon, and night shifts). The research findings were from the University of Michigan (2008) and involved 2,300 adults followed over the course of ten years.

Workplace bullying has reared its ugly head again. Sadly, women engage in this practice (bullying other women) more often than men do (to each other) reportedly 71% of the time. This data is based on results of a 2008 study by the Workplace Bullying Institute and Zogby International. Guess it is tell-tale that a WBI (Workplace Bullying Institute) actually exists – and has been around since the early 90′s. Personally, I have felt bullied in the workplace and yes, it has been predominantly women who were doing it.

So what do we do about it? Well, there are numerous sleep aids available including special pillows, head bands, sleep retreats, devices and perhaps (the most lucrative) prescription drugs which can lead to addiction. But overwhelmingly, the sleep experts say the simplest solution (and safest) is to take a nap. The bottom line: managers and bosses need to take control of toxic workplace environments and not ignore the damage done by workplace bullies. Second, companies like Mountain Equipment Co-op, Nike and Pizza Hut have implemented nap breaks and provided employees with nap rooms. Let’s not frown upon someone who takes a short nap during the day. Third, enforce policies regarding maximum hours worked within 24 hours and within the week. Preliminary studies (which require more replication) have found that a lack of sleep seems to increase the likelihood of developing diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. Fourth, we need to “leave work at work” – cell, smartphones and secure company portals have created anytime, unlimited remote access to work. As Washington State University’s Hans P.A. Van Donge, PhD (of the Sleep and Performance Research Center) stated, “We get caught up in this mode of being available ALL the time. It’s not as valuable as we believe.” Mark Rosekind pointedly asks, “Which person do you want on the job, the one with 34% better performance (after a nap) and 100% more alert – or the other guy?”

It is widely known that Quebec has the most affordable child care in the country. Licensed spaces amount to a bit over $7.00 a day. So, it was exempt from the study and all other provinces were deemed comparable. In Ontario, the article states, over 72% pay more for childcare than the Atlantic provinces. We are not comparing apples to apples here. The Atlantic provinces rely on seasonal industries (such as fishing) and salaries are much lower, on average, than in Ontario. To be fair, you’d need to state it as a percentage of income that was spent on daycare.

Martha Friendly, director of the Toronto-based Childcare Resource and Research Unit estimates that 75-90% of licensed daycare expenses are wages and benefits. And Petr Varmuza, director of operational effectiveness for the Children’s Services department of the City of Toronto, was stated (in this article) as saying, “Some fully qualified Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) in Toronto centres are paid as much as $26 an hour, while others, with the same qualifications, are paid as little as $16 an hour.” I am shocked that anyone who spends three years in college, now requiring certification, is cited in such a manner. All of the ECEs that I am aware of make $11 – $14 an hour..with NO benefits. Can you blame them for looking for unionized or school board jobs?…who wouldn’t? I’d challenge anyone who thinks working with children 0 – 6 years of age is easy to try it for JUST ONE DAY.

Not surprisingly, the survey found 80% of respondents wanted more help from provincial and federal governments to make child care more affordable for the average family. Part-time child care also seems to be desired by 29 – 39% of parents. A Nova Scotia parent was quoted (and I agree), “I feel the kids would be better taken care of if the facility were able to pay employees competitive wages.” The glaring omission in this article is input from the experts, the ECEs themselves. I think your study data needs updating and expert opinions.

Please, any ECEs (Early Childhood Educators) care to comment, feel free to use my website. Many parents are deeply grateful for the work you do. On a personal note, whenever I hire an ECE to babysit, I pay them $20 an hour…they deserve at least this, in my opinion.

Somewhere I read something that stuck with me, “If everyone looked like Christie Brinkley or Robert Redford…what a boring world it would be.” A few years ago, at an ophthalmology seminar, I saw before and after photos of oculoplastic (eye and lid) surgeries. Although some surgeries were necessary for visual functioning (ptosis or droopy eyelids), some were surgically treated to look “more symmetrical” – but, they actually started to look boring. They lacked character. Like Ashley Judd, I have one eyebrow higher than the other…now, I wouldn’t alter it for the world. My sister, 5′ 9″ who modeled at 14 years of age has a symmetrical face…I was shorter and didn’t have her symmetry. I am saddened to learn that healthy and normal looking young men and women are pursuing cosmetic procedures at record rates. How superficial have we become? … what you look like doesn’t matter.

Now designer “beautiful babies” are available. Stephen Colbert presented a piece on this recently and added the comment, “In the eyes of the Lord, all children are beautiful. But down here on earth, we have higher standards.” How unethical is that?? So now, supposed ugly parents can have “beautiful” children by buying the donor eggs and sperm from beautiful donors. Well, money can buy us anything, can’t it. When the world is full of “perfect” people…those who look different will be considered special and exotic…rare birds. So, I am gleefully awaiting the day that ugly is hot.

Back to the man’s world point. I recall seeing a little corner headline in The Toronto Star a few months ago that read, “Sadly for Elin, Tiger is human.” I wonder, would we ever see that kind of sweet, forgiving little headline if Elin cheated on Tiger? (without knowing for certain, I’m guessing a man came up with that headline). Hey guys, ever thought it might have been lonely for Elin, being at home with the kids while Tiger was touring the circuit, away for weeks at a time? Here’s guessing how that scenario might play out: most (not all) men would look down upon Elin with disbelief that a woman could do that to Tiger. But worse, some women would vilify Elin – Poor Tiger…how could SHE do that to him? Come here Tiger, I’ll take care of you. Ouch, I know that hurt and I am a woman. In my experience, women do not have as much compassion for one another.

Ah come on, boys will be boys, right? Actually, women’s bodies have more erogenous zones than men’s. From an anatomical standpoint, polyandry (having more than one husband) makes more sense. A woman can have multiple orgasms and enjoy sex many more times a day than a man could. Historically, this practice was done mainly for keeping property inheritance within a family (such as two brothers married to one woman) or done due to the scarcity of women in certain cultures – but not of the woman’s choosing. A little known historical fact is that women DID get to choose from a selection of ”lovers”; in Vienna (1716) Lady Montagu felt that, “Many women of the nobility had two husbands – one for the name, the other for the ‘game’.” It was considered gauche (lacking in social graces) not to invite all three to dinner. Philosopher Voltaire was another example. For part of his 16-year affair with married woman Marquise du Chatelet (“the divine Emilie”) all three resided together. Yet why does having a healthy, dare I say, normal sex drive and openly embracing it, mean someone is “bad”? I am probably more of a Carrie Bradshaw type but I secretly want to live like Samantha Jones.

Our brain is also fragile and easily influenced. The dogma of marketing and how to sell people anything is..make them feel inadequate or lesser without a product or service. Designers of virtual world games such as World of Warcraft (WoW) or Final Fantasy know how to hook users by gratifying the reward or feel good pathways of the brain – thought to be related to dopamine release in the brain. Dopamine, similar to adrenaline, affects movement, pleasure and motivation, cognition and frontal cortex function. Psychologists have seen video game addiction or MMA (massively multiplayer addiction) starting to become serious. Other acronyms similarly used are: MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), CRPGs (computer role-playing games) and MUDs (multi-user dungeons). A child even died of neglect due to the inattentiveness of her WoW playing parents and there are publicized reports of people in their 20s and 30s dying after numerous hours and days of playing these games. China has set limits on how many hours a person can play WoW and treatment facilities already exist in Washington, Beijing and the Netherlands. But wait, don’t these games improve eye-hand coordination and sharpen reflexes? Yes they do, but so does playing tennis and actually living in the real world – driving, walking the dog, playing with the kids. In my teens, I was drawn to a game called Q-Bert and spent lots of quarters on it, happily distracted from reality. Hey, we all need a break from reality…like a couple hours spent at a movie once a week or playing golf. It saddens me, however, that one person I know has already spent (or wasted) an entire year of his life playing Final Fantasy (this game tracks the time spent playing it). When I asked around, almost everyone I knew also was aware of someone potentially “addicted” to one or more of these games. Research about MMA is fairly new and by definition, anything can become addictive if done to the point that a person’s self worth becomes reliant on it or it inhibits their ability to function in the real world.

Our preconceptions about “brains” (or, who has ‘em and who doesn’t) represents one of our most enduring, socially acceptable prejudices. And yet, psychologist Howard Gardner outlined seven to nine types of intelligence. Recent studies have aimed to link mathematical ability as a predictor of “success” and in the mid 90′s Daniel Goleman’s E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) gave rise to comparisons of what makes someone a great leader (suggesting that intelligence, or I.Q., is not as predicative a factor as E.I., emotional intelligence). What fascinates me in our society is the preferential or “special” treatment one receives if thought of as being “smart”. In my family, if you didn’t attend university, you were a lesser person…I suppose my father, having lived through the depression, didn’t want any of us to be impoverished. True enough, it seems most higher paid jobs require a higher education. Yet, why do people “look down” upon those with say musical or spatial intelligence – as if they don’t deserve to be paid or treated well. And yet art and music has been shown (even with algorithms) to be mathematical in many respects. Eckhart Tolle’s book, “A New Earth – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” touches on the very idea that we cannot see, nor appreciate all that makes up a being. So why do we judge and set a value on someone based on one or two things, like title or salary?

Some quotes that stick out in my mind include Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge” and Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” But the one I love most (and I still can’t find out who authored it) goes something like this, “When a child looks at something for the first time, s/he will ask, “What is it?” – man asks, “What is it good for?”

Andy Rooney (60 Minutes news commentator) presented a piece on re-branding products with same size packaging but with less product inside – I loved his coffee example. We are seeing similar things being done with many jobs. In ophthalmology, for example, certified ophthalmic assistants/technicians have been re-branded to include less educated and even only “those enrolled” in such studies. Drop the “certified” and almost anyone can be given this title, save the skill set and deserving pay that goes along with it. Sadly, it is the patients that suffer and perhaps the world-class ophthalmologist who needs to waste time verifying and even undoing the damage done by someone who, for instance, administers eye drops without first checking for narrow angles or doing a pupillary check (properly) which could, in fact, help diagnose life threatening conditions (such as brain tumours or aneurysms).

Disposable was the relief word for moms everywhere when I was growing up…from a family of seven with one bathroom, no dishwasher, and one station wagon (complete with fake wood trim and the rear-facing back seat – for the twins). Who had time to recycle? Or try washing dishes mid-summer in a non-air conditioned bungalow when you could simply toss the plates out? A new movement toward making things from scratch is being revived – and thank god. When someone makes a tree house (that doesn’t harm the tree) or kitchen utensils from drift wood, for instance, there is more respect and reverence shown to those things. We take care of them. It is no secret that some employers view their staff as throw aways too. Letting people “go” before they are entitled to benefits or adding to their responsibilities without adding to their pay (praise instead of raise) and given a fancy title maybe? Don’t feel bad, we’ve all fallen for some flattery.

One innovative person stands out in my mind, H.J. Heinz, founder of the company that bears his name. I saw a documentary on this man and his philosophy. In turn, he won the respect and loyalty of his staff during lean years that the Heinz company had to endure. Whenever one of his employees faced a personal hardship such as illness or death of a loved one, instead of judging and replacing this person, he showed compassion and understanding. No, it’s not wise, nor helpful to “save” people from everything, however, none of us are perfect…none. Compassion will always triumph over judgement. I honestly think that no one really wants to do a “bad job”, we all like to feel competent. I see now that inclusion of others is so crucial to brilliant ideas coming to fruition. Exclusion of others, now done by workplace bullying, unlawful firings, downsizing or even paying people less than agreed to upon hiring has become fairly commonplace. Wait a sec, don’t we have employer rating websites, Labour Boards, and Human Rights Commissions? Yeah, but some fear being “found out” reporting and few will support a co-worker facing unfair treatment for fear of losing their job too.

Remember when a man’s (or woman’s) handshake was as good as their word? Well, now their “word” needs to be in writing. Guess we really do need to hold people responsible for their actions (or inaction)…even the highly educated or billion dollar companies or corporations – BP and the US financial industry – just to name two. Wonder if we kept people around (instead of disposing of them), worked with them through their errors in the earliest stages, gave them opportunity to “safely” admit and rectify them…could we have averted some tragedies?

Update: “Near Miss” protocols have been in place in many industries, including construction and health care. A “near miss” is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness or damage but could do so. Perhaps more people would feel “safe” (without fearing a backlash or loss of their job) if more of these events could be reported anonymously and handled in a confidential manner. It takes guts to speak out when things don’t seem right – and we should applaud those who put pride aside to put safety (or doing what is right) first.